Overview

• At a June 5 House Appropriations hearing, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick asserted that any product made in America would face zero tariffs under the administration’s April 2 trade plan.
• Rep. Madeleine Dean challenged Lutnick by pointing out that bananas cannot be cultivated commercially in the continental US and questioned the fairness of a blanket import levy.
• Major retailers such as Walmart have already passed tariff costs onto shoppers, hiking banana prices by roughly 8 percent since the policy’s rollout.
• The United States sources most of its bananas from Guatemala, Ecuador and Costa Rica, while domestic output in Hawaii and Florida accounts for only a small fraction of national consumption.
• Lawmakers continue to debate how ongoing trade negotiations and potential tariff adjustments will influence consumer costs and broader economic stability.